The Rightful Heir
by XXPay4XtraShippingsXX
Summary: Following the Disney movie, Snow White and her prince still have a few questions about her almost-death. Hijinks ensue when they realize something about the queen's death that they didn't exactly realize before...


**This one was a request from vampygurl402, for arashi wolf princess's birthday! Sooo…a Happy Birthday to you! :D**

**This is my first serious Snow White/Charming fic, as well as the first one in a while. It took me a while to figure out what the heck I was going to do with it, and I hope that isn't too obvious!**

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Once the happy couple had arrived at the prince's kingdom, they got right to work preparing the wedding. Everyone was excited to see the "Wandering Prince" finally settle down, and the king and queen loved his wonderful bride. The prince made sure he had time to converse with his bride-to-be, and barely spent a second away from her. About a week before the wedding, they had some time to sit and talk. They chose to talk about—what else?—the wedding. The prince was very excited as he went on about how perfect it would all be.

"…And I shall have the bakers prepare a fantastic feast for afterwards! What kind of cake would you prefer, my love?"

His eyes, sky blue, were joyous and sparkling. It was hard for Snow White to keep herself from getting lost in their depths. "...Actually," she murmured shyly, "I have never had cake before. So I don't know."

The prince adopted a puzzled expression. "Never?"

"No. The Queen never allowed me any when I was a girl."

His blue eyes were only even more confused. "The Queen?"

Snow White's expression mirrored his own now. "Yes. My stepmother."

The prince just about fell over. "Your stepmother!" He received a nod. "But when we first met, you were dressed like a servant!" he stammered.

Snow let out a melancholy sigh. "Yes. It was never any trouble, really, and I suppose I never thought of her as mistreating me until the day she tried to have me killed."

Of course, this only made him even more upset. "Your own stepmother tried to kill you? That's madness!"

Snow White turned pink as she saw how much she was worrying him. "No, please, don't worry about it," she begged. "I'm fine."

"Dearest love," exclaimed the prince as he cupped her cheek, "I fancy myself reasonable and not one to do something foolish in a fit of blind rage. But this is not something that I shouldn't worry over. She tried to have you killed! Who is to say she won't try again?" Another thought crossed his mind as he considered the recent events that had brought them together. "…Who is to say she hadn't tried again?" he asked slowly.

"What do you mean?" wondered Snow.

The prince withdrew his hand to place it on his chin in thought. "You truly looked as if you had died, back there. Do you know how you came to be in that…err…?" He didn't want to say the word "coffin." "Field?"

Snow White had not really considered how she had gotten there. "…Why, I don't! The last memory I had was of the kind old lady giving me a wishing apple…"

"A what?"

"A wishing apple," replied Snow innocently. Her eyes were large and sparkling. "Oh, it was the reddest, juiciest apple I'd ever seen! And she told me that one bite would make my wish come true. And when I opened my eyes again, it had!"

When it registered that she had wished for him, the prince's cheeks turned red as he gave her a sweet, albeit goofy, smile. "That—that's wonderful," he stammered, other coherent words failing. He had to take a minute to compose himself; that comment had really caught him off guard! But he was able to pull himself back together in time. "But from what you're telling me, I have to assume that that was not the real purpose of the apple. It—well—killed you, didn't it?" He felt so awkward talking as if she had been brought back from the dead, but from his standpoint that was really how it seemed.

"Why…you might be right." Snow frowned. "Oh dear…I really worried everyone, didn't I?"

The prince put an arm around her. "Don't you go blaming yourself, now, dear Snow White," he reassured her in a soothing voice. "It was not, nor could it ever be, your fault."

"But I believed her, and took the apple without a second thought," replied Snow sadly. "They even told me, the little men, not to speak to strangers! But she seemed so kind and frail, I just had to help her."

The prince kissed her hair. "Then that just shows what a kind and wonderful woman I'm going to marry," he whispered. Snow simply smiled and returned his embrace.

After a few quiet minutes, they let go of each other. The prince folded his arms. "Now we just need to deal with your stepmother and the old woman. After all, attempted murder is a crime, is it not?" Snow White nodded. "Right. Why don't we head back, right now, and see if your little friends know what happened to the old woman, first?"

"Wouldn't the kingdom worry for us?"

The prince grinned sneakily. "Ah, but you forget that I'm known as the 'Wandering Prince.' I'm never around. I can take as much time as I need."

Snow White, though occasionally assertive when she needed to be, was generally a passive person. And this time, she really wanted to see her friends. Her already weak resolve crumbing, she smiled and replied, "All right then. Let's go!"

* * *

It was nearing evening and nothing whatsoever had happened to Doc that day. After the incident with the Queen and Snow White, they agreed that it was wise to have someone watch the house while the rest went to work. That way, if a stranger wanted to rob them or if Snow White came to call, someone would be able to react accordingly. Today had been Doc's turn. So, he was the only one to answer the door when a knock sounded. Doc had been absorbed in a scientific journal and he didn't even hear the first one. But the second time around, he was snapped out of his daze, random info on various metals swirling in his already full mind. He stood up and realized his feet had fallen asleep. Wincing, he waddled over to the door as a third knock began to sound. He opened the door and he immediately broke out into a wide grin. "Snow White! Hi! Back already?"

The prince looked miffed at not being noticed while Snow simply gave a happy smile. "Hello, Doc!" She looked around. "Where is everyone else?"

"Oh, they're all out today. What can I do for you?" asked the bespectacled dwarf kindly.

"The prince and I were talking," answered Snow White, "and we agreed that something needed to be done about the people who wanted to hurt me. Do you know where the old woman is?"

Doc's grin turned into a curious expression. "Well, now…no, that's right. I don't think we _did _get a chance to tell you."

"Tell Snow White what?" wondered the prince.

"Well, that we know where she is. But I don't think bringing you there would be very good for the lady," he said with a nod towards Snow White. "She, ah…well, she fell off of a cliff."

Snow White gasped in horror. Although the woman had tried to kill her, and Snow definitely wanted her behind bars, she never had wished death on her! She felt a hand on her shoulder and gave a grateful glance at her husband-to-be.

"How did that happen?" the prince questioned.

Doc's cheeks turned slightly red. "When we saw what she had done to you, milady," he nodded towards Snow, "we chased her through the forest. We were itty prang—pang—pat—_pretty angry!_" he finally spat out. Sometimes he really hated his tongue. He flushed under the stares of the two people in front of him. "Ah—sorry about that. Anyway, we cornered her at that cliff, where she tried to kill us with a huge boulder. At that moment, lightning struck her, and the queen was no more."

Snow White's face turned even whiter. "The—the Queen?"

"Oh!" Doc snapped his fingers. "I forgot that part, too! The old hag that you met was actually the queen in disguise! I'm sorry I forgot to tell you about that."

The prince's eyes were huge. "Then that means this kingdom doesn't have a queen, does it?"

Doc looked from the prince to Snow. "Well…seeing as you're the princess, my lady…"

Snow's expression was that of pure shock. "That means _I'm _the new…" As the realization struck her, she couldn't handle it. She fainted.

Both the dwarf and the prince yelped as the latter made to catch her. "Bring her inside," Doc stammered as he opened the door and gesticulated towards the table. He mostly cleared it off, piling the dishes into the sink.

The prince looked around worriedly. "Should I, uh, kiss her again…?"

Doc made a face. "This is different from then," he replied as he adjusted his glasses. "She only fainted from shock. She'll be up in a minute or two. I'll brew her some tea." He sarted to walk off but then turned around. "Want any?"

The prince gave a half-smile. "I'm fine, thank you." He looked worriedly at Snow, but he soon realized that it was himself for whom he was to be worried when he saw the door open and the shocked expressions of the other dwarves as their eyes darted from him, to Snow White, to him again.

Now, when the other dwarves came back to the cottage, the first thing they saw upon walking in was the prince (who they all respected, of course, but they naturally disliked his taking Snow White from them) and an unconscious Snow White on their table. So, of course, their first reaction was rage.

"What did you do to her?!" roared Grumpy as he brandished a pickaxe.

The prince jumped back. "No, you don't understand!" he exclaimed, trying in vain to ease their sudden anger.

"Get hi—hi—HACHOO!" sneezed Sneezy, although the others got the gist of it. They ran towards the prince and began attacking him.

Doc had been pouring a cup of tea when he heard Grumpy's furious shout, and almost poured the boiling liquid all over his arm. "What in the—?!" Cautiously, he set the cup back on the counter as he rushed into the living room to try and stop the fighting. He saw the prince being pummeled and punched by his fellow dwarves. He immediately took action. "Would you knock it off?!" he boomed. The scene before him froze, and he had to admit that it was quite humorous. Grumpy had the prince in a headlock and was trying to hit him with a pick, Dopey was in the process of biting the prince's foot, and Bashful was giving the prince's left arm a punch that he knew would never hurt anyone. Happy and Sneezy were unknowingly hitting each other on accident as they both tried to punch the prince in the gut, and Sleepy had obviously tried to attack but wound up falling asleep on the floor. They were all frozen in time as they looked up at their nerdish roommate. Doc nodded. "Thank you. Now, if you'll permit me to give you a few more pieces to the puzzle, the prince did _not _harm Snow White in any way."

A single, "Oh," sounded from the dwarves as they all got off of the prince, whose hat was ruined and whose hair was now sticking up on one side.

"She _fainted_," continued Doc, "after hearing that upon the death of the Queen she is the rightful heir to the throne!"

The other dwarves looked like they were about to comment, except they stopped upon the realization that Snow was waking up. She sat up, stretched with a yawn, and turned to see all of the dwarves looking at her. "Oh! Hello, everyone!" she chuckled. "It's just like the day we met!"

The six who had just arrived immediately rushed to her side, asking frantically if she was all right. After multiple reassurances that she was absolutely fine and that she had just been surprised, they were eventually satisfied.

"You know, I'm surprised that nobody else noticed that the queen was gone," commented the prince. Snow then realized how silly he looked, and hid a giggle behind her hand. "What? Was she always away from her subjects or something? I don't get it."

"Oh, it's no surprise that nobody noticed, but the reason I laughed was—your hair!"

The prince looked around for any sort of mirror. "What? What about my hair?" By now, the other dwarves were snorting behind their hands.

Doc brought him a clean dish (Snow's insistence on cleanliness really stuck with them after she'd left) and the prince looked at his messed-up hairstyle. He chuckled. "Oh, maybe I ought to wear this style more often," he joked. After another hearty round of laughter as his expense, the prince adopted a serious expression again. "But if this land no longer has a queen," he murmured, "then perhaps it ought to have a new one. Snow White?" He approached her and knelt. Her red lips parted into the shape of an "O." But she was also a bit confused, as they were already engaged. Looking up he asked, "Will you rule this kingdom with me?"

Snow White broke out into an excited grin. "Yes! Yes, I will!" She hugged her fiancé tightly.

Happy that their Snow White would be ruling closer to them, the dwarves cheered.

Of course, the kingdom was not so enthusiastic at first. Neither Snow White nor the prince were experienced in any sort of ruling, but the counterargument was that the former had lived the life of a peasant and knew exactly how they were treated. In addition, the prince explained that his home kingdom could form an alliance with his new one. Eventually, they presented a convincing enough argument for the kingdom to allow them to rule, and though their reign began with a very rocky start they eventually got the hang of things. They were a kind and loving pair, and tried their best to make sure the kingdom was as happy as they were. And despite anything that went wrong during their rule, well…

They still lived happily ever after.

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**I hope you enjoyed it! Obviously, I don't completely understand the intricate workings of kingdoms, but, hey, it's a fairy tale.**

**Keep reading, and God bless all of you guys!**

**~Shippings**


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